Autumn odds and ends

Some of the Court House offices have gotten into the Halloween spirit. The Clerk's office has what appears to be a witch.

However the really scary office is that of the Auditor. Look at the floor. You can see what happened when one of the customers complained too much.

On Monday evening both the Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission met and had agendas that were not especially interesting. The BZA granted a variance for frontage to a person in Kankakee Township. He had a lot he wanted to subdivide into three parts and the total frontage was not enough for one parcel to meet code requirements unless he put the lot line through a building he wanted to keep. The BZA also passed changes to its rules and procedures that it had been discussing for several months.

 The Plan Commission had four causes on its agenda. Two were for replats, that is, altering the lots that had previously been platted. A replat in DeVries Manor in Keener Township combined 11 lots into one and the other, also in Keener Township, split a large lot into two lots. Both requests were granted. The other two causes were rezones from A1 to A2. A lot zoned A1 must be ten acres to have a house while an A2 zoned lot needs only three(?). The first was in Wheatfield Township and the second in Milroy. The Milroy case involved an existing house. The owner had an offer to buy the existing house but wanted to keep the surrounding land and the purchase would not happen without the rezone. Both were granted. The Plan Commission also amended its rules and procedures. It also discussed something called "As Built." The issue here is how to make sure contractors build to approved plans and how to deal with landowners who fill in approved swales, causing runoff problems for neighbors.

Also on Monday the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met to allow the public to comment on the consolidation of the Drexel and Fairground TIFs. I went expecting a five-minute meeting with no members of the public. Instead there were half a dozen people and the discussion took well over an hour and was quite informative.

The main reason for combining the TIFs is to allow for bigger bond issues, if needed. The fear of those who spoke was that there were already plans to issue bonds to fund downtown revitalization and that if that were done, there would be no funding available to develop the infrastructure needed to develop the area between the old edge of Rensselaer and the Interstate, the SR 114 corridor. No one disagreed that this was the only area that any large factory could use. Lintner Industrial Park is full and the area around Drexel is split into multiple small parcels with a variety of land owners. North of Rensselaer along US 231 is swampy and to the south the bedrock is close to the surface.

Although City utilities serve the SR 114 corridor, the water line cannot deliver enough water to support a factory that would use a lot of water. Two or three businesses have looked at the area as a possible site but rejected it because of the water constraint. The City's ability to supply natural gas is also a possible constraint and this is due to the limitations that the trunk line supplying gas imposes on the City. One potential developer eliminated a site near I-65 due to this gas limitation. In contrast, the I-65/US 24 intersection has abundant water, gas, and electricity and that is a reason that there has been considerable recent development near that intersection.

It seems that everyone in the room recognized that sooner or later a water tower needs to be built near I-65 if that area is to attract large businesses. (The hypothetical tossed around was a manufacturer employing 200 people.) The guesstimated cost of the water infrastructure was about $2 million.

The discussion ended on a positive note, with everyone saying that they were on the same page. The Commission then approved the resolution. This meeting was the final step in combining the two TIFs. (The two TIFs abut. The Drexel TIF extends from Saint Joseph's College into downtown Rensselaer and the Fairgrounds TIF from downtown Rensselaer to I-65. The increased tax from improvements goes to the TIF district and can only be used to fund improvements that benefit the district.)

Before the Redevelopment Commission met, the Franciscan Health Walk with a Doc had its final walk. The speaker spoke about yoga and had the participants do a few poses. There was light rain and only a few diehards showed up. Although on Monday only four people completed the one-mile walk around the perimeter of Weston Cemetery, over the course of the seven week series, 41 or 42 people participated. There may be another series in the spring.

This week the leaves have been turning yellow, orange, and red and are starting to fall; it looks like autumn. We have had two mornings with frost and may get another before the week is out. Much of the soybean crop has been harvested but there a lot of corn is unharvested. It looks ready but I am told that it still has a lot of moisture.